


A Dark and Stormy Night

by Ael_tRlailiiu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 04:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6409522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ael_tRlailiiu/pseuds/Ael_tRlailiiu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian and Ursula talk about recent events and family, nebulously post-5b (includes spoilers for 5.15).</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dark and Stormy Night

Rain hammered on the windows at the Rabbit Hole. Killian studied what was left of his drink in lieu of doing anything like thinking. The weather had kept the crowd down. 

“This seat taken?” A figure paused at the next barstool. 

“Ursula.” Killian gestured invitation. “What brings you to Storybrooke? Crisis in the undersea kingdom?” 

She shook her head and sat down. “All quiet. On the boring side, if you want the truth. Thought I would stretch my tentacles, see what kind of trouble you folks managed to get into since I left. From what Mal said, you’ve all had a busy time. You’re looking halfway decent for a dead man.” 

“Only halfway?” He frowned in mock affront and flagged down the bartender for her. 

She smiled. “You’ve got two strikes against being my type.” 

“Fair enough.” 

Ursula ordered a whiskey sour and “anything on your menu that isn’t fish,” and took a moment to savor her drink. “I should visit more often. You can’t get these in the Enchanted Forest. Or these,” she added as her chips arrived. “Not an avocado to be seen.” 

“We should be able to set up some manner of import arrangement.” 

“That’s not a bad thought. I’ll mention it to my father.” She sipped her drink. “So what brings you in here tonight? You’ve got your ship back, not to mention your Savior. Can’t see a little rain keeping you indoors. Not in public, at any rate.” 

“I’m actually meeting Emma here later.” He couldn’t help a smile at the thought of her. 

Ursula gave him an amused look but no further comment. Killian got a refill but left it sitting for a few minutes untouched. The door opened and closed a few times, more people leaving than arriving. Cold, wet air crept into the room every time and lingered. Ursula appeared engrossed in her own thoughts, or perhaps in the jukebox selection, her eyes half-closed. When the song ended, he saw a deft tentacle slip across the floor with a coin to choose a new one. 

“How much did Maleficent tell you about recent events?” he asked. He didn’t recognize this music, but there were centuries of it here that he had yet to learn. 

“The Reader’s Digest version. She was hunkered down with Lily in the woods, ready to take on all comers, or Dark Ones.” 

“Sensible of her.” No doubt the town had been lucky to be spared that particular battle. 

“She’s smart. But yeah, I got the highlights. Dark One, Camelot people, Dark Ones plural, you dead, you not dead, Gold being an asshole. Did I miss anything?” 

Only the important details, he could have said -- the burn of magic and of steel, and that hope could sear the heart as easily as despair. All he said was, “The Underworld.” 

“Ah.” She raised her eyebrows. “Never been.” 

“And you the daughter of a god.” 

“You think family gatherings are complicated here? The stories I could tell you.” 

“I should like to hear them. But yes, family is… complicated.”

“Didn’t know you had one. Oh -- Underworld? Right.” 

“Indeed.”

Ursula sighed and got a fresh drink. “You want to go ahead get whatever this off your chest, or do I have to squeeze? I spent a couple hundred years listening to people’s secrets that the water brought; nothing’s gonna shock me.” 

“It’s not my secret. In the Underworld, I encountered my brother. He had died quite a long time ago, when… well, many things had not yet happened. You may even find this amusing.” He glanced at her; she raised an eyebrow. “I found that he sank a ship. Killed the entire crew to guarantee my safety, my future, after I did something most irresponsible, to say the least.” How different would things have been, if he had known that all along. “Liam spent the rest of his life trying to earn a wrongly-acquired honor, and hundreds of years in the Underworld because of it.” 

“That’s no small thing to find out. And now?” 

“He’s at peace.” Something to cherish, that, a blessing to bring out of the shadows. 

“And you’re not.” Ursula sighed and turned to look at the dim and nearly empty room. “You know something? I spent thirty miserable years in this world. Thirty years looking at the sea, never touching it. Swore that if I ever got to go home, I would show humans what real terror was, real revenge for what I’d been through. And here I am. I got home and it was wonderful. Seeing my father again, talking about everything we’d missed. Awkward, too -- not like everyone didn’t know exactly what had happened. Humans think merfolk are flighty, but we don’t forget. ”  

“Humans think merfolk are vicious bastards,” he corrected her.

Ursula grinned. “Well, we often have our reasons, don’t we? Anyway. After I’d been home for a while I found myself getting restless. It was beautiful, being back in the sea, but not quite enough. Not anymore.” 

“Too long on land?”

“Something like that. My point is that things change you. All of them. Good, bad, who’s to say until it’s all over.” 

“You still have your tentacles, I note.”

“And you still dress like a pirate.” 

He raised his glass to acknowledge the touch. 

“To the past?” She clinked hers against it. 

“To the future.” 

“Hey.” Emma walked up as they finished their toast, shedding her waterproof jacket. She kissed his cheek and nodded at Ursula. “Good to see you…?”

“Only visiting.” She swung down from her stool and set some money on the bar. 

“Our reservation’s not ‘til eight. Earliest I could get us in.” Emma glanced from one to the other with a quizzical expression. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” 

“We were just talking,” Killian said. He slipped his arm around Emma and drew her close. Her hair was wet; the bright citrus note of her shampoo chased away the chill. 

“Though if you’ve got some time to kill, we could always play pool. That’s another thing we don’t do underwater.” A smile hovered around the edges of Ursula’s lips. 

“Against a woman with eight arms?” Emma raised an eyebrow, then tugged on Killian’s arm with a grin. “You’re on.” 


End file.
